Page:Ornithological biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, vol 2.djvu/556

320 ring autumn and winter, frequently hanging head downwards at the ex- tremity of a bunch of grapes, or such berries as those you see repre- sented in the Plate.

I found this species extremely abundant in the vipper parts of the State of Maine, and in the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, but saw none in Newfoundland or Labrador.

While travelling I observed that they performed their migration by day, in loose parties or families of six or seven individuals, flying at a great heightj and at the intervals between their sailings and the flappings of their wings, emitting their remarkable plaintive cries. When alight- ing towards sunset, they descended with amazing speed in a tortuous manner, and first settled on the tops of the highest trees, where they re- mained perfectly silent for a while, after which they betook themselves to the central parts of the thickest trees, and searched along the trunks for abandoned holes of squirrels or woodpeckers, in which they spent the night, several together in the same hole. On one occasion, while I was watching their movements at a late hour, I was much surprised to see a pair of them disputing the entrance of a hole with an owl (St?-ix Asio), which for nearly a quarter of an hour tried, but in vain, to drive them away from its retreat. The owl alighted sidewise on the tree under its hole, swelled out its plumage, blew and hissed with all its might ; but the two Woodpeckers so guarded the entrance with their sharp biUs, their eyes flushed, and the feathers of their heads erected, that the owner of the abode was at length forced to relinquish his claims. The next day at noon I returned to the tree, when I found the Uttle nocturnal vagrant snugly ensconsed in his diurnal retreat.

This species of Woodpecker does not obtain the full beauty of its plumage until the second spring ; and the variety of colouring which it presents in the male and female, the old and young birds, renders it one of the most interesting of those found in the United States.

Picus VAUius, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 176 — Ch. Bonaparte, Svnops. of Birds of the

United States, p. 45.

Picus (Dendrocopus) varius, Swains, and Richards. Fauna Bor. Amer. vol. ii. p. 309.

Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Picus varius, Wils. Amer. Ornith. voL i. p. 147. pi. 9. fig. 2. Male Ch. Bonaparte, Amer. Ornith. vol. i. p. 75. pi. 8. fig. 1, 2,

young Nuttall, Manual, part i. p. 574.

Adult Male. Plate CXC. Fig. 1.

Bill longish, straight, strong, tapering, compressed towards the end,